Sergio Perez is clearly the number two driver at Red Bull, and has been since he arrived in 2021. That much is beyond dispute.
With Verstappen considerably faster at virtually every race, Perez has been called upon to play a support role. Red Bull have evidently been happy with the manner in which he’s carried it out.
That’s partly why they’ve handed the Mexican a new contract that could keep him with the Milton Keynes outfit until the end of 2026. Perez may not have served as the ‘rear gunner’ Verstappen would have liked in recent races, but he has at least contributed to a harmonious atmosphere within the garage.
The 34-year-old came into the Spanish Grand Prix with a three-place grid penalty from the previous race in Canada. The stewards decided that he’d rejoined the track in an unsafe condition after breaking his rear wing in a crash around 20 laps from the end.
Red Bull were wary of avoiding a safety car that could have hurt Verstappen’s chances of victory. They instructed Perez to limp back to the pits, but it was the driver who received the brunt of the punishment.
He reached Q3 in Barcelona for the first time since the Miami GP at the start of May. But he’ll once again start outside the top 10 after qualifying in P8.
Bernie Collins notices Sergio Perez giving Max Verstappen a tow
Pole appeared to be up for grabs at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya but Verstappen established himself as the favourite. He topped Q2 and also set the pace on the first runs of Q3.
The Dutchman then found another chunk of time on his second attempt to extend his advantage. But Lando Norris produced a magnificent lap in his McLaren to deny him by two-hundredths of a second.
This is despite the fact that Red Bull ordered Perez to give Verstappen a slipstream down the start/finish straight, as Sky Sports F1’s Bernie Collins revealed after the session. Christian Horner and co. seemingly deemed it a worthwhile sacrifice given the aforementioned grid penalty.
Verstappen did gain a handy chunk of top speed relative to Norris. But their tactic ultimately failed as the Briton wrestled the time back over the course of the lap.
“I went back through the circuit map and Perez did tow Verstappen,” Collins said. “They threw Perez’s final chance of a quick lap to give Verstappen the tow down the main straight, all the way into turn one. It still wasn’t enough to beat Norris.”
Her colleague Karun Chandhok added: “He gained 5k compared to Norris on the straight there. That’s what it was worth.”
Damon Hill says Perez is visibly ‘not happy’ at Spanish Grand Prix
Perez had to put the team’s interests before his own in Barcelona, but he’d struggled to make much of an impression earlier in qualifying. It’s unclear how much further up the grid he would have been able to get with a standard lap.
He’s already achieved one of his main goals for 2024 by earning a contract extension, but it’s still been an immensely frustrating spell for the former McLaren driver. He’s only scored four points in the last three races, having failed to finish the last two.
This has seen him fall to fifth in the drivers’ championship, 87 points behind Verstappen. Both Ferrari drivers are currently ahead, as is Norris.
Damon Hill believes that Perez is still ‘under pressure’ despite the apparent security of a new deal. The 1996 F1 world champion says ‘you can tell just by his face’ that he’s ‘not happy’.
Chandhok says Red Bull ‘need’ the six-time race-winner to improve but isn’t sure how he stops the ‘slide’ he’s been on recently. The team’s 49-point lead in the constructors’ championship could soon come under threat if he’s unable to do so.
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